240 Scientific Intelligence. 



a close resemblance to features observed along the subsiding 

 parts of the Atlantic coast, and give an impression that a slow 

 flooding of the stream valleys is still in progress. A third point 

 noted is the accepted fact that the Atlantic coast, south of Con- 

 necticut, is subsiding, as has been estimated (Cook) for New Jer- 

 sey about two feet in a century ; while the land about Hudson and 

 James bays has risen (Bell) perhaps five to seven feet in a cen- 

 tury. These facts all point in a common direction, warranting the 

 hypothesis that the tilting of the Lake region which went on at 

 the close of the glacial times, as shown by the slopes of old shore 

 lines, is still in progress. 



The author notes at the outset a paper by Mr. G-. R. Stuntz 

 (1869), in which he argued, in the case of Lake Superior, that 

 there was a gradual rise of water at the west end of the lake, and 

 a fall of the same at the east, referring this to a westward canting 

 of the basin, the western part becoming lower as compared with 

 the eastern. 



With this introduction the author goes forward to discuss the 

 plan of investigation, and the data available, with also certain 

 special observations made in 1896. The stations are taken in 

 pairs, the points being so chosen as to most satisfactorily show 

 what change of level, if any, has been going on. An absolute 

 conclusion is difficult to reach, since very few of the observations 

 are above question because of the doubt as to the stability of the 

 individual base levels involved. Still the candor and fairness 

 with which the author weighs the evidence is worthy of all praise 

 and gives his conclusions great value. 



He decides that the harmony of the measurements, and their 

 agreement with the predictions of geological data, makes so 

 strong a case for the hypothesis of tilting that it should be 

 accepted as a fact, although some doubts exist concerning the 

 stability of the gauges. The mean rate of change deduced is 

 0-42 foot to one hundred miles in a century; but this depends 

 upon certain assumptions which he does not regard as altogether 

 probable, and he notes that the change indicated by Stuntz's 

 observations is much more rapid. It would seem then that the 

 assumption is justified that the whole Lake region is being lifted 

 on one side or depressed on the other, so that its plane is bodily 

 canting toward the south-southwest, and that its rate of change 

 is such that the two ends of a line one hundred miles long, and 

 lying in a south -southwest direction, are relatively displaced four- 

 tenths of a foot in one hundred years. Certain general conse- 

 quences follow from this assumption (eliminating irregularities 

 due to difference of rainfall, evaporation, etc.). Thus, on Lake 

 Ontario, the water is advancing on all the shores. This is also 

 true of Lake Erie, the most rapid change, of eight or nine inches 

 in a century, being at Toledo and Sandusky. About Lake Huron 

 the water is falling more rapidly in the north and northeast. At 

 Lake Superior the water is advancing on the American shore and 

 sinking on the Canadian. Similar relations exist for Lake Michi- 



